Formula Jedi

Can anyone tell me more about the newly rebranded Formula Jedi (nee Honda) series for 2004: dates, entry, website etc?

Many thanks
JA

The force is with it?

Send DSM a PM as his son David drove in the series last year and I guess he probably knows whats happing this year ok?

Jonny,
I drove in many of the Formula Honda (now renamed Formula Jedi for 2004) races last year.

This years dates are provisional, but the first race is mid April at Croft by the looks of it.

The website will be up in time for that, but in the meantime you can always call Jedi Cars on 01933 440774 and they can provide all the info you need. Looks like it will be a 25+ car grid again this year :)

Rgds
Jonathan

I wish we had this series in the US, it looks like a blast!

ActiveMS, what kind of costs are involved competing in this class?

Shiny, I did this in 2001-2002 and it cost me about £5k per season and I finished 3rd in 2001 and 2nd in 2002. Great value lo-cost racing.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jonny Apex
[B]Can anyone tell me more about the newly rebranded Formula Jedi (nee Honda) series for 2004: dates, entry, website etc?

They dont have a website and its pretty hard to find any information about the championship. Give Jedi a call on
01933 440774.

first round is at croft early april, double header! can't wait!
just got to get my car working again...can't get any sparks and have checked 'everything' i think! anyone got any ideas? and common faults (cbr 600)

Have you checked your battery charge? if the battery is even a few volts low, the engines often won't fire, even though they spin over. The CDI needs a good supply.
People have been caught out with this before, haven't they dasc04?

got 13.5 volts...should be plenty, there isn't even a weak spark... absolutely dead!

have you tried with a booster? I know I'm going on but the systems are very reliable and the CDI does need a good battery. Has it been charged recently? What is the voltage when you are turning the engine over?
I assume you have checked all of the connections? Also, the master switch, if it's one of the common red ones, can be suspect.
when did you last run the engine? What have you done since then?

i had the charger connected, fully charged battery, have checked all the connections, done resistance checks on plus genorator, alternator throttle position sensor, full continuity checks, have got power up to the coils, ecu, everywhere.. tried different coils, leads, plugs, ecu....was running fine, then picked it up n its side, put new floor on it, and tidied(wrapped it in 'spi-wrap' up the wiring loom but was very careful not to disconnect anything....
other possibliltys are voltage regulator but should still get spark i would of thought..?

You got me. Have you asked JC if he has any idea?

lol, jc n electronics don't go together very well...according to him..

but i have asked him to fax thought a wiring diaram which i will have to work through...

what do you think about the voltage regulator if that wasn't working would it stop sparking?

halecmini,

not sure why you have not got a spark but i had big problems with voltage drops last season. I re wired my battery connections using 10mm2 wire with good quality crimp terminations.

Not sure who did the wiring before, but the crimps were falling off. That might help alot.

ok, well it's worth looking at, what would happen if the voltage regulator was knacked?

but the terminals look good......

.... JC does have the guy who wires up all the new cars though..

yep, i've had a chat with alan too, he was very helpful. gave me a few more ideas so i'll try them out tonight!

How about checking the masterswitch on the side of the car. Ive gone through 2 in a year and just changed another one. They can suddenly just 'go' or be wobbly.

re your dead cbr600 I expect it will be something silly that you have overlooked but if you don't manage to get it working let me know and I will try and help fix it

V. stupid question, but is fuel getting to the carbs?

haven't checked, but has got fuel in, and can here the pump slow down when it builds up pressure...? why what this do justin?

jedi088 thanks for the offer, i will keep trying but will pm you if i get stuck!

i have checked the master switch too, there is power up to the coils... and ecu etc

I only wish I knew anything at all about technical stuff so I could suggest it and say that it would make you "more powerful than you could possibly imagine"

Oh well.

are you all running the cars yourselves or are there any jedi teams? where would you go to get some work done on it such as setup or engine stuff, and what about engine rebuilds?

cheers
Andy.

it's not the earth lead is it?
it could still be the master switch failing, able to take the ignition switch load nut malfuntioning when the main current goes through it?

We ran the cars ourselves back in 2001/2002 at a cost of about £5k per season. 1 rebuild during the 2001 winter and that was it. We had the carbs balanced at TTS at Silverstone but everything else was done by ourselves as the cars are low maintainence and little to change on them.

Originally posted by woodyracing
are you all running the cars yourselves or are there any jedi teams? where would you go to get some work done on it such as setup or engine stuff, and what about engine rebuilds?

cheers
Andy.


Andy,
Most to tend run themselves with help from friends/relatives or the odd bit of hired help.

The jedi factory will run you, whereby they will look after the car, servicing, transport etc and all you have to do is turn up and drive. More details on this can be provided by themselves (01933 440774) Jedi ran last years formula honda and mono1200 champ with great success.

In regards to rebuilds, its like anything in motorsport. The quicker you want to go, the more you have to spend. Its worth having engine rebuilds at least once a year and replace big end bearings, shells etc as the engines do get punished as they spend 90% of their time at 11-12k rpm.

A replacement Yamaha R1 engine (commonly used this year) will cost around 800 pounds, plus the cost of upgrading the clutch and adding a sump baffle. So pretty reasonable.

Hope the above helps.

Ps. John, you could be right about the earth lead. Of the main guys at jedi mentioned the other day to me that where the earth leads connects to the chassis like on many cars can cause problems if not fully tight and secure and should be checked on a regular basis.

WOOOOHOOOO the jedi lives again!!!

firstly... my multimeter was pants! so i used a light buld across the coil leads to determin weather we had a pulse or not... and low n behold...no pulse.. so i changed the pulse generator...no joy...did continuity checks from the big white plug to the ecu..again.. fine... but on the other side of the plug to the pulse generator, someone had slaved in about 4inches of wire, and this had broken!! but it all works again now!!

but nothing was lost, apart from a few hours in the shed! least i know the jedi electics inside out now!!

cheers for all the sugestions lads!!

is anyone testing at silverstone tomorrow??

thanks Andy and ActiveMS :)

How much do the wings help? Are they mainly decorate like the Palmer Audis?

I wish I was in the UK with some spare dollar, Jedi sounds like fun.

halecmini: Im up there tomorrow, so if you fancy sharing a garage we will be in 10A. Ive PM'd you anyway.

Originally posted by DavidStHubbins
How much do the wings help? Are they mainly decorate like the Palmer Audis?

I wish I was in the UK with some spare dollar, Jedi sounds like fun.


Funnily enough, when I first started driving I didnt think they did, however as my driving improves I can feel the difference especially on frontal downforce and combating understeer through longer corners. So definitive answer is yes they do make a difference.

they make a big difference. Not the most efficient or effective profile but quite big for the weight and the downforce produced is significant compared to that weight.
Lat year, for various reasons, and because it was convenient, I put our wings in a tunnel at Kingston Uni. The downforce produced is consistent, predictable and more than you might think.

ActiveMS, why aren't you doing Stowe on Sunday if you're already there Fri and Sat?

Hi John, afraid not. Only testing tomorrow and busy the rest of the weekend. I will be out at some point at Stowe and most definitely snetterton.

err, no BARC SEC out at Snett mate!
Stowe, Lydden and Brands.

Oops thought they were there with the 2CV's? It was scheduled last year but not enough entries meant it was cancelled.

Oops thought they were there with the 2CV's? It was scheduled last year but not enough entries meant it was cancelled.

well.....i got my first signiture.... fair play to JC this car is absolutely awesome!!! it was my first ever race yesterday, haven't done any testing, never driven at silverstone..first time i'd sat in the car. was damp for qualifing....qualified 5th...and absolutely ****ed down for the race, won it by 10.54 seconds!!! wow what an amazing car!! 100% record... think i might retire now....

What an excellent start to your racing career, well done indeed.

......the infamous loadsaaaTOP is back after the winter break with more TOP than ever before!!! Anyone that wasnt at the Jedi dinner dance last night missed a good night. Bring on croft in april. Who is who here, those with a jedi of course???

Well done david on your first win, excellent !!
See you at Croft. Has anyone had the entry forms yet?

cheers jonathan, where were you on saturday night?? As for croft, I dont think anyone has got hold of the entry form. News is that the 600s and 1000s will have separate races.

Really? How many entries for the 600's?

How much is BRSCC and FJedi membership these days out of interest?

alright andy, i hear youve got a new car!!! Alright for some! The BRSCC fee has stayed the same, but the jedi fee has gone up to £160!!!! Aparantly theres about 16 in each class this year, but I dont know how many have entered croft.

thankyou activems, it would be good if we had seperate races, me and dad we certainly be doing croft!! thats 2 600's!! does anyone know if there are any test days at croft on the run upto it?

Yeah I got myself a Civic Type R as my loan on my Pug ran out finally so I thought I would change it and the Type R came up at a price I would have been stupid to miss. Even if I sold it today I would make a couple of K on it :)

Are there def 2 grids at Croft then? 1 for 1000's and 1 for 600's? Reason I ask is I can't afford all the races and we can't afford to upgrade the car so if there is a seperate grid for 600's I might be tempted.... :)

Nice to see another Type_R owner ;)

Coincidence :)

Not sure about test day at croft on the friday. Ive phoned them and left messages but they havent got back to me yet.

Didnt know about Sat night, otherwise would have been there.

Sounds like there are over 30 registered drivers for F.Jedi so far.

See you all soon :)

34 registered drivers so far, 18 - 1000s, 16 - 600s. The entry form for the first race (croft) is out so is a form for a test day on the friday prior to meeting. It was given out on saturday night.
if their is enough drivers for the first race in each class their could be seperate races, we will see.

will you be testing on the friday louis? have you been out this year yet?

i have not been out yet, i am still sorting and finishing off my car after its winter makeover, should be out soon. I hope to be testing on the firday prior to croft i will wait and see.
but so far the championship is looking very good for the year ahead.

yeah it should be good fun, my year is certainly off to a good start after sat! just have to see how i compare to you guys! did you just get my pm about the engines?

Originally posted by louis
34 registered drivers so far, 18 - 1000s, 16 - 600s. The entry form for the first race (croft) is out so is a form for a test day on the friday prior to meeting. It was given out on saturday night.
if their is enough drivers for the first race in each class their could be seperate races, we will see.


Excellent. Will hopefully be the biggest turn out for jedi cars since f.honda was started.

The forms are also available at www.brscc.co.uk on the formula jedi champ. page. You can of course pre-book all events by sending post dated cheques. I sent all 8 this morning.

Also good news about croft testing, especially as I havent even seen the track yet.

I tried to get to Silverstone on Friday and turned around at Bicester due to M40 being down to one lane. Luckily it was cancelled anyway.

unlucky, the weather was awful on fri! kinda glad i didn't try and go testing now!

just out of intrest does anyone know if a 600 jedi has won a mono race outright before?

Not sure but they have def been on pole before on a number of occasions. I wanted to get my car updated to a 1100 with the new wings but the cost of doing so is just way to high so I'm stuck with the 600 and old style wings. if there are going to be seperate grids at Croft then I may see if I can muster up the money from somewhere to enter the championship.

Anyone got a copy of this seasons rules that they can email me to have a look over? Just want to make sure my car is still eligable. Same spec 600 as in 2002.

as far as i know there is nothing that has changed to stop you running the car from last year, it's not really in there intrests...!?! if you get stuck for a copy of the rules i can send oyu a copy... but not until next week as there at home!! sorry! think you should join the championship tho!!

helecmini - i emailed you back did you get it?

yep got it...and replyied ;)

Andy, if your looking for a 1000cc car for a weekend, ill gladly swap my car for your type R!!! Croft should be good, hope it pours down! Louis, hows your car coming along? Are you going to get out before croft?

should be out before Croft. Contemplating where to take the car out, not keen at taking it to mallory park on a wednesday morning as its always busy. Thinking about taking it to Snett as then i will know where i stand from last years times.

what about you have you been out yet dave?, or are you a fair wheather driver like me!

Andy talking to your dad on saturday night, i think he is keen still to do the series, we were talking him round to the idea. Never mind 600s he wants to go 1000s!

..ill only test if its wet louis!!! Hoping to get up to knockhill this saturday and blow away the zetecs!!!

dave you want to see if you can do a winter series its always cold and wet in november! summer racing is not your thing.

i can't wait to see what these cars are like in the dry...it was pretty awsome in the wet... should be very intresting!! have only been blessed with rain so far...

dave, have you just upgraded your car? or have you got a new one? mk4 or 6?

dave is the 1000s car alot more powerful to drive than the 600s in terms of handling and driveability. not that you will reveal to many secrets to me!

Yeah we want to update the car to a 1000 its just too expensive thats all. After all the mods required to get an R1 in it and update the bodywork we were being quoted almost £7k which is the price of a new chassis etc. Way to expensive as I won't be able to afford the whole season anyway as I don't have the money.

Put all my effort into raising funding for the Barber Dodge Pro Series and thats come to nothing now.

At least if there are seperate grids for R1 and 600's I would be more interested. Not that fussed if its wet as when I did mono at mallory last year it was wet and I was only 0.2secs behind the pole R1 but then 4 seconds of in the dry as the R1 has about 25mph more speed than the 600.

Will see....I just wanna drive somat again now! ;)

...just wait and see louis!! You wont be fitting your 600 again though! Halecmini, who actually are you? were you araound last year? We've got a new Mk6 car, it wasnt worth having our old one modified.

i'm Dave Cameron, i was only supporting last year, but my dad was racing in the 600... Tim Cameron!?! we've both got 600's for this year, i've got mark hoskins old car..!?!

andy to have our mk4 car converted to a mk6 and then to have the R1 installed was considerably less than you have been quoted. You have to watch john corbyn prices they change on a regualar basis.

we did all the manual work ourselves on the car and utailised all of our parts from the 600 to the 1000, which was a big cost saving, if we did not do that it would have been alot more expensive.

what kinda stuff did you utailise? btw i think my dad is going to ring you later... does john insist he does the conversions himself? chassis wise?

Hi everyone

Can't remember who asked, but there are 2 days testing at Croft on Monday/Tuesday 29/30 March.
We are aiming to do 2 halfdays, but there is a special price if you book both full days.
The F BMW's are there on the Saturday so may go along for a look.
Incidentally, the best BMW time at Snetterton recently was 1.13.9, a good second slower than a quick Honda 600 and miles behind a 1000.
There's a well proven quick Honda available if anyone fancies a drive.
See you soon.

is there any testing any closer to the race? ideally the friday? is too far away to make two trips!

HCM or is it Dave?

The circuit tell me there's practice on the Friday before the meeting, 16th April.
If you ask nicely I may let you in on a few secrets!!!

Mike R

it's Dave! i'll pm you ;)

In case anyone is still doubtful, the Classic Sports Car Club is organising the Formula Jedi Croft meeting on 17/18 April and have booked a test day on Friday 16th.
They will have a single seater session every hour, £149 for the day, no half day, if booked in advance, £159 I think on the day.
See you there

As Old Ropey said above + remember not to pay the BRSCC for Croft as per the downloadable PDF states. Classic Sports Car Club wants paying directly.

See you all there.

can't afford testing on the friday aswell, so i think we are gonna take our chances as it is a double header!

is anyone doing the next mono round at silverstone in two weeks?

i am and my little brother to i think! he is going testing at mallory this week... so depending how he gets on, h will be in dads car for silverstone!! could be 3 of us racing this year!!...........SCARY!!!

he he ;)

....dave, if your struggling for an extra car, then we've got a fast reliable 600cc that we could come to some sort of arrangement over!!! 3 camerons in one race, I see a destruction derby on the cards!!

Quote: 'Incidentally, the best BMW time at Snetterton recently was 1.13.9, a good second slower than a quick Honda 600 and miles behind a 1000.'

I think the weather played a part here, Mike. At Thruxton the BMWs were about 0.5s behind BARC FR times in similar conditions, which are about 2.5s quicker than a FJ600 at Snetterton. This would imply that the BMWs will be in the mid 1.10s in good conditions.

Having said that, they probably have a much higher top speed so won't be cornering any quicker, if as quick, and you're right, they won't be near the FJ1000s.

well... we'll have to see... it all depends on how the little one gets on!! but i think a long chassis R1 might be on the cards at some point which should be fun!!

Originally posted by DSM
Quote: 'Incidentally, the best BMW time at Snetterton recently was 1.13.9, a good second slower than a quick Honda 600 and miles behind a 1000.'

I think the weather played a part here, Mike. At Thruxton the BMWs were about 0.5s behind BARC FR times in similar conditions, which are about 2.5s quicker than a FJ600 at Snetterton. This would imply that the BMWs will be in the mid 1.10s in good conditions.

Having said that, they probably have a much higher top speed so won't be cornering any quicker, if as quick, and you're right, they won't be near the FJ1000s.


Does it really matter which car is quicker? Yes I do like the Jedis, both 600 and 1000 but FBMW is a totally different championship and there is no point comparing it.

Champ Car/IRL are quicker than F1 cars so by that argument they are a better championship, yet F1 is still the pinacle of motorsport, yet its slower?!!? It doesn't matter how quick they go, there both designed for different reasons.

Jedi 600/1000 are designed for the club racer to enjoy himself/herself on a budget in a very quick single seater.

FBMW is designed for the career minded young gun who has plenty of money/sponsors and wants to run in a professional championship with manufactuer backing. I'm sure given the choice if you asked any of the Jedi drivers who want to make a career out of motorsport, if they could afford either Jedi or BMW, I bet you they would all pick BMW as it offers more in the long run. I bet then they wouldn't be saying "well its 2 seconds slower than my Jedi".

When I drove the Barber Dodge at Sebring, although way quicker than my 600 it was probably slower in a straight line than a 1000, but thats because it weighs 3x a much! Yet driving one of those cars was immensly much more challenging than the Jedi and given the choice I know what I would drive as I had a purpose for doing it. Once you've done it why would you compare the two at trying to prove one is better than the other?

Just enjoy what you driving now! Wish I could afford to be racing something all season :(

Anyway, how many entries now for Croft in the 600 class?

Andy Roberts said: "Anyway, how many entries now for Croft in the 600 class? "

Last time I heard it was around 16 with the same amount + some extra's for the 1000's.

There is a possibility (aparently) of two grids.

Cool! Where would I go about getting an entry form for Croft / Jedi just in case I can muster together the money to do it?

You will need to get hold of Classic Sports Car Club. I dont have the number on me unfortunately, but JC at the factory should be able to get it for you.

Sounds like it should be a great start to the season for us all.

Try www.csccgb.co.uk

Thanks both. Just realised I'm instructing at Mallory on 17th April so I won't be able to do the first round even if I wanted to now. Maybe Snet eh :(

Out of interest - do any team hire cars for the above series...if so can someone PM me with some details...tks

JNWRF01: There are a few cars around that may be available for hire. 'Old Ropey' has one that you may be able to hire. You could also ask the factory as they will definitely know (Call Jedi on 01933 440774).

Originally posted by JNWRF01
Out of interest - do any team hire cars for the above series...if so can someone PM me with some details...tks

If your interested in buying a rapid mint 600 we have one for sale. Drop me an email if your interested and I'll give you some more details.

Originally posted by JNWRF01
Out of interest - do any team hire cars for the above series...if so can someone PM me with some details...tks

You thinking of being JNWFJ now instead of JNWRF03 then? At least you'll be able to get a smaller trailer..

just a quicky about gearing... what is the best for my jedi 600 at silverstone? last time i ran snett gearing and it seems ok....but it was wet!?! so it was difficult to tell! any ideas?

cheers dc

best person to check with is JC, 01933 440774, he pretty much knows of the top of hi head what is the best gearing for most circuits in the uk.

will do just don't like bothering him for nif naf and trivia.... thought someone might know off the top of there head...?!?!?

yeah fair point, but it will only take a second. in the formula jedi champ i have never raced at silverstone so dont really know; however i was testing there a couple of weeks ago with snet gearing. it was also very wet but just managed to get one dry session in. perhaps the gearing could have been a bit longer. let us know what he says. cheers and good luck this weekend again at silverstone!!!

i spoke to him in the end and he said 15/47 which is the same as snett so i was right.. just got to prep the car now! cheers!

Does anyone know a decent R1 engine builder in the Surrey Area??

Managed to drop a valve in testing at Silverstone on Friday. (Only managed 3 laps)

Bloody shame as engine was just run in having been rebuilt at fairly large cost.......not a happy bunny.

Will have to revert to spare standard engine for Croft......double unhappy bunny.

Croft 15,16,17.
Any team looking for space in a awning? . Will be up early Friday, A1 permiting, and have 5m * 4m available spare. Team must have sense of humor, at least 2 sec a lap behind us and get the teas in at least once!

that all depends on the weather!!! but it does sound like a good option!!!

Halecmini, its gonna rain mate! (which will be a first for my rookie driver - we haven't tested in the wet yet)

Good luck to all the Formula Jedi drivers at Croft this weekend. Hope you all have a really good time and look forward to reading about the race here on Monday :)

It doesn't allways rain at Croft, mind I do carry my BIG brolly at all times ! any car numbers to look out for on my paddock walkabout and meeting session?

even the BBC agrees
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=1682

We'll be there with Car no. 21 (dark blue)
Taking ez-up in case but looks like fair weather so far..... touch wood.

Only prob im running spare as what we thought was a dropped valve on the main engine turned out to be a seized cam...... time for a new cylinder head..... ouch.

Going up late thursday night, so I'll wake you all you testers up at 1am when I get there..... honk honk ;)

ActiveMS. There has been a couple of standard R1 cylinder heads go thro' E-bay over the last few months and they went for reasonable £.

Bigfella. Please drop in on 29 for a chat. Yea be welcome.

the rain sounds good!! i can drive my car in the rain....it's just the dry i have a prob with at the mo!!! but i have done a few tweeks and my fingers are crossed!!!

In answer to a much earlier question, the championship website for Formula Jedi is in the process of being sorted for this year, pending full talks with Jedi. The series calendar for 2004, as we have it, is available from the pull-down menu at the right of the homepage of www.MSportUK.com (http://www.MSportUK.com/). Looks like being an action-packed season.